Sudden Death For Two-Year-Old With Heart Transplant

The story of Zoe Chambers is one of strength, courage, hope, and finally, tragedy. It is the story of a two-year-old from Hessle, East Yorkshire, who died suddenly last weekend after she had a successful heart transplant last year.

Zoe was no ordinary girl, but a fighter of the highest order. She had to be, to have survived six cardiacdefine arrests before finally getting a much-needed transplant and in the process also going on to survive 100 days on an artificial heart.

So critical was her condition that she was at the top of the European waiting list for heart transplant. It was only poetic justice that this brave little girl got the transplant she needed. But then, in a cruel twist of fate, this brave little life was snuffed out as suddenly.

It was not easy for Zoe’s parents as well. Doctors informed her parents, Julie and Rob, last year that their daughter had very little time left if she was not able to get a donor. She was subsequently placed at the top of the heart transplant list in Europe.

Things went from bad to worse and Zoe had to be kept alive using an artificial heart, the Berlin Heart, for a full 100 days, even as the donor search went on. Luckily on the 100th day of using the Berlin Heart, doctors were able to locate a donor.

Once the doctors were able to zero in on a donor, they were able to complete the transplant procedure successfully at the end of a 10-hour long surgery at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle in June last year. Her progress thereafter had been remarkable.

It is not definitely easy to be a two-year old and consume 34 tablets a day, eat using a gastricdefine nasal tube, and also be treated twice a day with a nebuliser to ensure zero infection. Zoe did all of that, and surprised all by returning home within two weeks of her operation where doctors had forecast a three-month stay at the hospital.

She took her first steps at home on Mother’s Day, and was soon running all around the house. Such was the pace of her recovery that she had been shortlisted for participation in the British Transplant Games in Sheffield this August, where she was slated to participate in an obstacle race, a ball-throwing event, and the 25m dash with other children at the transplant games.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post on Zoe's second birthday, Julie said, “We don't know what is round the corner. She is a life-limited child and will have to be monitored more closely than most children but she has been given the chance of a gift of life. We are going to give her the best life possible."

A couple of weeks after the birthday celebrations, the Chambers family threw another party to celebrate a full year of her good health. Zoe’s good health had meant renewed hope for her and her family.

34-year old Julie had mentioned last month, “She’s a fighter. It's a miracle that we still have her. When someone tells you your beautiful little baby girl could die, things don't get any worse than that. We will be eternally grateful to the doctors and the NHS for all they have done for Zoe. She has fought tooth and nail to be with us today and there is no reason why she can't go on to live a normal, happy life.”

News of her demise, therefore, came as a shock to all those who knew Zoe and her courageous story. She was rushed to the pediatric accident and emergency department of the Hull Royal Infirmary after falling ill at home.

Doctors there did their best to save her, but it was a losing battle eventually, and the little brave girl’s story met an untimely and certainly unfair end.